Burrowing Innocence
by L. Borealis
Summary: One four year old little Ginny, one awesome brother, and one very out of control broom. One shot.


Boredom racked her brain as she stared off into the open air of the Quidditch pitch, her fingers absentmindedly trailing the hem of her thin yellow dress. She impatiently blew a chunk of her wily red hair out of her face. She was lonely. For Bill, her favorite brother, had just gone back to Hogwarts...leaving her with Ron, Fred, George,and Percy.

Bill was the best big brother that any four year old girl could dream of. He was strong and tall and loved to pick her up and give her shoulder rides. He would race her around the Quidditch pitch, sometimes letting her win. He would make mud castles with her in the garden on rainy days and would teach her how to throw garden gnomes with great skill. Sometimes, he was even so good as to play dolls with her (knowing, of course, that his tomboy little sister would lose interest quickly and want to go outside in the mud). But nothing, nothing compared to the afternoon they had had the day before he left to go back to Hogwarts.

Ginny was in her room, putting away her freshly washed knickers as instructed by her mother, when a knock came from the open door way.

"Psst, Gingy, come here, i have a secret to tell you," Bill said as he stepped in the room, looking over his shoulder.

"What?" she asked, her little eyes lighting up as she scurried over to him, fresh laundry dropped haphazardly on her bed.

"What's the magic phrase?" he sang back.

"Tell me now, git!" she whispered, giggling.

"Very good! Now, you know that Mum has gone with Charlie to Diagon Alley and Fred and George are downstairs terrorizing Ron...that just leaves you and me today," his tone one that elicited a squeak of sheer excitement from his tiny red headed counterpart, "So, what do you want to do?"

She pondered hard, her small little nose scrunched, "Swimming?"

"Nah, you can do better than that."

She narrowed her eyes, "Gnome darts?"

"Eh, we did that yesterday," he said, waving his hand in a bored manner as he looked down at her.

She bit her lip, knowing that her next idea would be shot down so fast that it probably wouldn't ever fully exit her lips, "Erm...broom ride...?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking," he said, smiling at her as he picked her tiny form off of the ground and flung the girl over his shoulder.

"No!" she exclaimed, shock racking her brain as he hopped down the stairs, "Mummy will be so mad!"

"Nah," Bill said, his mischief seeping out of his whispering voice, "she's gone for another two hours, and I've got Percy watching the others. She'll never know."

She squealed, before Bill put a hand over her mouth, "But, you can't tell anyone. Deal Gingy? It'll just be a little ride in the sky, just you and me."

"Deal! Deal! DEAL!" she whispered in his ear, her little legs kicking in excitement over Bill's shoulders.

The broom shed had always been a Ginny free zone. Her mum, stating that she only had one daughter and didn't want to have six more kids before she received another girl if the first one were to die from a broom fall, had strict rules keeping the girl away from the boys' shed, even the training brooms that didn't go about two feet. Even at age four, this did not sit well with the little firecracker. Bill opened the padlock on the shed, pulling the door open to reveal the wonders that she had always hoped to peek.

It was a small, dank, and dark room. Cobwebs glimmered in the high corners, catching the light from the cracks in the ceiling. The dirt floor was littered with old gloves, stray twigs, and random balls for Quidditch. Many brooms were stacked against the walls. Old, new, large, small, a training broom that had been handed down to Ron from Fred, Dad's ministry broom.

"What do you think?" Bill asked.

"Yay!" was all the girl could squeak out against her beating chest.

"Well, lets go then," Bill said, leaning down and picking up Ron's helmet and guards. Bill fastened each piece onto his little sister, laughing as each of the items was just a bit too big for her, making her look like a fierce turtle. It was a difficult job, the excitement coursing through her made her fidgety beyond repair. Tightening the strap under her chin one last time, he smiled at her, face to face.

"You ready?"

"Oh," she said, scrunching her face to appear menacing, "I've been ready."

Bill laughed while he snatched his broom and led the way out of the tiny shed. Squatting down in the sunlight, he beckoned to her.

"Hop on!"

Ginny jumped up onto her wonderful big brother's shoulders and was carried away like a warrior princess. Ginny had dreamed of this day for, well, as long as her little mind could remember. Thoughts of flying through the air, sucking on wind, loop de looping around a broom. These thoughts stuck with her daily as she watched her brothers.

The duo reached the Quidditch pitch and Bill let her down.

"Now first, we have to go over safety, okay?"

"Mmmhmmm," she nodded obediently.

"Okay, lesson one: Getting on the broom," Bill showed Ginny how to call the broom to her hand, realizing it might be too early to do so when her little hand couldn't fully grasp around the broom. He laughed, she shrugged.

"Okay, moving on," Ginny was placed on the broom, her feet still touching the ground. Looking around from her new (completely unaltered) perspective, she placed her hands--

"Now, don't put your han--"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!" A scream wrenched the air as the little four year old shot off into the sky, alone. Ginny fought the bucking broom left and right, veering and swerving with all of her strength, trying in vain to get some semblance of control. She could not hear the screams of her brother from the ground. It was just her and the wind.

Around and around, up and down, through branches of trees catching her hair, the young girl fought, screaming all the while. Scared out of her wits, she forced herself to loosen her grip on the thick handle and lightly pulled up.

Ginny breathed a sigh of relief as the broom slowed to a glide with the light touch. Her scream changed to a triumphant 'Whoo!'. Fear being overtaken by excitement, the girl glided through the air, her little dress flapping in the wind. Ginny maneuvered through the many moves she had seen Charlie and Bill do, an invisible Quaffle in her hand. Zooming across the pitch, the girl shot the make believe ball through the hoop and scored a make believe goal, whooping to herself as she flew back around, but still too scared to put one of her little hands in the air in triumph.

The broom felt like she always somehow knew it would, it felt like home. Glancing down to the ground, she gasped. She was HIGH. Her speck of a brother waved his arms and cupped his hands over his mouth to yell up at her. Realizing suddenly that maybe she shouldn't be alone up in the sky, she tried to make her way down to the ground.

Landing was not fun. The ground grew closer and closer at alarming speeds until she could finally hear her brother's voice instructing her to pull back. In her re induced panic, she did so. A little too much. She screeched as the broom shot her into a backwards somersault. Luckily, a natural skill took over and she straightened out, all that much closer to the ground.

"Now just tilt the handle just a bit, really lightly," Bill yelled, now only fifteen feet below her.

"Okay!" she squealed as she dipped the broom. To her relief it allowed her to glide down to the ground. Though she still biffed it and rolled off into the grass.

Sprawled on her back and panting from a mix of fear, excitement, and adrenalin, she opened her eyes. Her brothers worried face looked down upon her.

"First off, are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm wonderful!" she screeched as she jumped up from the ground and dusted off her dress, "Again!"

"Really?" he asked, stunned, "After than somersault I thought you'd never want to ride a broom again ever."

"Did you see when I veered!" she pointed up to the sky, "and when I made the goal!" mimicking it on the ground. The girl then began running around their area of the pitch, darting and weaving like she was on the broom once again, " and then i did THIS! and then I did THIS! and THAT! and then--"

"Well, you're definitely a natural Gingy. How about we go up again, WITH ME this time, and I'll teach you a few tricks."

Ginny answered by running at her brother and tackling his kneecaps, looking up, she smiled, "You are the best brother in the whole wide world!"

He looked down at her and smoothed her out of control hair, "You look like a fire demon. Now, hop on," she moved to the broom with a greedy look in her eye, he grabbed the neck of her dress and pulled her back, "On second thought, I'll get on first."

Bill mounted the broom and rose into the air, scooping Ginny up like a Quaffle and depositing her onto the broom directly in front of her, pulling her tight to his chest. Ginny melted into the strong form of her best friend, no summer day had ever been better.

A/N: Just a little set of sweet little ideas that came to me during a walk yesterday. Send a review with what you think, I would be quite appreciative of feedback on this. (I definitely have two more chapters planned, but if this is liked, I might take it further.) Thanks for reading!


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